


An interesting plan for a pair of shiny strangers

by Mecha9Viceroy74



Category: Hawaiian Mythology, Moana (2016)
Genre: Attempted Seduction, Be Careful What You Wish For, Crystals, Doppelganger, F/M, Former Friends, Human Tamatoa (Disney), Identity Reveal, Magic, Multi, Mystery, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Revenge, Shapeshifting, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22961527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mecha9Viceroy74/pseuds/Mecha9Viceroy74
Summary: When a strange  giant man shows up on the island where Moana lives along with her tribe, suspicions arise, especially when a similar man shows up the following morning. Where is Maui and why does the strangers know so much about the dreaded Tamatoa himself?
Relationships: Maui & Moana Waialiki, Maui/Tamatoa (Disney)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	An interesting plan for a pair of shiny strangers

**Author's Note:**

> I Don't own Moana or the fictional characters and places, they belong to Disney. I'm not sure if some of these ideas might be used in the sequel though if a few unexpected reveals happened in the sequel, it would be interesting. Also get ready for a few mythological name drops.

A certain formerly gold encrusted giant crab chuckled at the sight of the glowing crystals in his new lair in the island of Laloti, the realm of monsters. Oh this new power was wonderful and it would be the perfect way to make him shiny once more and he tapped the shell covering as he was placing a crystal on his shell with the other pincer, as if waiting for a response from the other side. " Think this magic think works pretty well with my tough shell. Why I'm almost like a god. Ahh I wonder if I can use the purple one outside of my little lair. Well, maybe I should try it out dear viewers? Not like you can do anything about it." 

With a sadistic chuckle he aimed the purple crystal outside of his lair with one claw and pointed to the outside of Lalotai with a right one, as one of the eight eyed bats chittered to his friend, while the clouds of cool darkness started to escape Lalotai's borders and head up the depths. Most of the other monsters were ignoring the magic thing and trying not to annoy the gods in the process, but right now Tamatoa didn't care. For he had revenge on his mind on the two people who humiliated him two years ago and now he had enough power to do it.. 

"Wow. That purple crystal makes the land up above nice and dark. Now we can have fun on the surface and annoy all the humans with funny pranks thank to Tamatoa!" "What about that human demigod Maui ? If he finds out, those two could wind up fighting down here again and that makes things worse for the rest of us." "Nah, he probably doesn't know about the crystals. " The first 8 eyed bat acclaimed to his friend, while above the depths, a strange colour was starting to spread and Tamatoa's dark magic with it.

One day later after the crystal magic experiment, everyone on Motunui Island was not happy, in fact it was very confusing how the incident had happened last night without any forewarning. The sea had turned an odd shade of purple and not even the other sailors knew what was causing it, for this was spooking all the fish, or making them aggressive. Moana hurried over to her father's fale. Her father Tui was waiting outside along with her mother Sina and Dad got to the heart of the matter. 

.

"Moana, an odd purple blast of light has turned the sea purple last night. I doubt that the Kakamora pirates are behind this, for they rarely leave the island of their own territory. We need to figure out why this has happened and fix it." Moana replied quickly. "Maybe it is something to do with the gods. It's barely been a year since Te Fiti was restored after her heart got stolen, Or maybe something else is at work here and we need to figure out what. Let's make a plan first though." So the preparations to find out started in the morning, not noticing a green light on a shell observing everything and showing it to a certain crab.

Tamatoa snapped angrily at the sight of Moana in his green seeing crystal while he was pacing in his new lair. "Oh, it's that little tag-along who took that heart for Maui. Moana wasn't it? Hmm wonder if this pink one does anything interesting to me, all the other ones worked on a crab like me, so I wonder how it'll work on a human. I'll get my revenge on Maui myself, even if I have to play the same tricks he does and eat a few humans in the process!!!"

The spiky sea serpent, shadow dogs and carnivorous plants all shuddered in fear above the sea level, now the giant crab was worse with his magic powers than before when he just had none-magical treasures on his shell, while Tamatoa started laughing while clutching his magic crystals with his front claws. "Hahahaha! Nothing can stop me now! Not even Maui!"

Then he vanished in a puff of orange smoke away from Lalotai, which was no small feat for such a giant crab to pull off in a single teleport . Then the sloth monster said as he swan off from the swim-way of Tamatoa's lair. "Good riddance , that crab's been messing around with those funny crystals for weeks and he kept on whining when he got the magic wrong. Why'd he want to be a human anyway?" 

A day after the sea had turned purple and the islanders searching for the source of the dark magic, along with Tamatoa teleporting out of Lalotai , the source of the problem chuckled as he touched a pink crystal while he hid in an islet away from the ocean and near one of the new islands. Oh this one would be a good trick to play on the humans for sure. But he didn't realise Maui had seen something shining orange on the islet, only for it to vanish as quickly while swimming in his shark form. "Probably nothing. Wait a minute,does that sound like-? No, he's back in Lalotai, right?" Maui wondered at the strange light.

The crab quickly hid inside the islet's bushes at the sight of Maui in the sea, before trying the pink crystal on his shell next and he suddenly realised actually shape-shifting without practise hurt and felt rather claustrophobic, along with somehow regenerating a limb as the magic slowly faded , but eventually the pain passed off as the feeling of agony wore off, so he could actually look, sound and walk as a human. Tamatoa also didn't make his transformation blend in very well, for his disguise was eight feet tall and wearing blue dyed clothes. After the magic wore off along with a few walking practise sessions, Tamatoa felt on top of the world and he attempted to try out some swimming to see how it would feel as a human before his next move. 

However the culprit forgot that as a human, he couldn't breathe underwater and started waving his hands in an undignified heap while trying to swim , but was actually drowning into the deeps, Maui sighed in his shark form as he pulled the giant stranger out of the ocean water. "For a guy your height you were sinking pretty fast into the ocean. You were lucky that I managed to pull you out of the sea stranger. " "Blub gurble thanks Maui. Nearly drowned there. Hard to believe you're still around " Then a hacking cough came from the giant as he coughed up the sea-water from his lungs on the sand, which tasted salty and bitter due to the magic, but after ten minutes he stood up waiting for a response, wondering if Maui actually noticed the scar. 

Now Maui as he changed back to his human form was starting to get a good look at the man he saved, with a brief rush from doing a good deed, was starting to get an odd feeling about this guy, who was wearing a ridiculous bright blue skirt, that looked familiar with how he towered over him along with an odd headdress shaped like two crab antenna, along with a fishhook shaped scar and quickly tapped his shoulder. "Erm, what's that in your hand? You didn't give me your name either, though you know mine. Also that scar looks a lot like a fishhook." 

A grim smile stretched across the stranger's face as he chuckled. "Well, well, well. Come on it should be obvious who I am old friend. Not!" Then just as Maui as about to react, the stranger froze him solid, along with part of the ocean leading to Lalotai. " C'est la vie, you should have seen it coming from me Maui. You're welcome for saving me from drowning, old "friend". Now to find your accomplice's village and settle the score with her." With a gangly dive, the stranger got away to the next island, but Te Fiti had seen what had happened, along with the ice chunks in the sea and was going to fix it. 

Ignoring the likelihood of a god finding out, the crab turned shape-shifter chuckled as he felt the sky breeze for the first time in his life along with all the funny little sense changes on his skin, but as he walked across the island, he wasn't looking where he was going and got his right foot trapped on a giant rock. "Ow! How do the hu-I mean, other islanders even manage not getting hurt on stuff like this!" He complained as a lance of pain went through his right foot, which admittedly was a feeling he hadn't had since a long time ago, during the loss of one of his real form's right legs. But somehow it felt just as bad. 

A couple of hours later, Tui, Moana, Sina and the rest of the wayfarers saw a giant man waving from the other side of the newly explored island and he seemed to have caught his foot in something. "La Orana strangers. My name is Toatogha and I was wondering if you could give me a hand. I'm lost, got my foot caught on a rock and I don't know the nearest way to safety from Lalotai, you know it right?" At the stranger's question Moana sighed. "Okay stay calm, we'll try to help. Why are you asking about the land of monsters?" 

"Because I was wondering if you knew. Anyway what's taking so long?" Toatogha muttered at Moana while everyone else was struggling to figure out what to do about the giant rock on his foot. "This is ridiculous. He's a giant and he got his foot caught in a single rock? I mean it is a pretty big rock." One of the fishermen groaned as said giant craned his neck. "Yes, I caught my foot in a rock. Don't look so shocked, happens to the best of us, no matter our size." But eventually the crowd managed to get Toatogha loose from the rock, now he was resting his foot despite the spears aimed at him, because of his appearance and looking oddly pleased with the current turn of events. 

"Are you hurt?" "Bleeding yes,but not too badly from the rock. Still not like escaping from the famed Tamatoa was easy." All the healers winced at how casually the monstrous coconut crab had just been mentioned, in the same sentence. But Moana was starting to grow suspicious at his cheery smile and quickly spoke up. "Why do you know of Tamatoa Toatogha? Because you sounded like you knew all about him. " 

The giant man just sighed at Moana in relief from having his wound checked out . "Oh he's a good friend of mine mon princesse. Why in a way, he let me go from Lalotai himself when he captured me two decades ago. Rest assured I'm not interested in attacking your village and would love to receive your hospitality in return for your help." 

Tui and the warriors all nervously backed down at what Toatogha had just said, for admittedly despite his friendly look the man towered over them , would probably be dangerous in a fight and Maui would think twice if the two of them had met. But something still wasn't right in Moana's eyes, or maybe she was overthinking it again and the stranger was friendly?

"How in the world could a man like that have survived the devastation on the world wrecked by Te Ka, that lasted for thousands of years, in Tamatoa's lair for twenty years?" Chief Tui muttered as Sina sighed "Well, maybe he found an island to hide on. I can see your suspicions Tui, after all our daughter found out Maui had been abandoned on an island for thousands of years, during her quest to give Te Fiti her heart. Who knows he might be trustworthy." 

He quickly added back to his wife, while making sure Toatogha wasn't listening. "Yes, but this man's a giant! Something isn't right here. Almost as if someone arranged it on purpose." Moana quickly interrupted her parents, while helping to steer the boat. "Well so far the sea seems clear, as long as we keep southwest of Lalotai. We'll get back to Motunui in a day, if the weather changes. I know that father, but we did save his life and he is a guest. But we all should watch our backs, just in case this goes wrong." 

As the sun set on Motunui, Toatogha, who was actually a certain crab in disguise snook out of the village after joining in with the welcoming feast. He found the meal rather dull since there was not any fish and it felt odd not having to sleep in sand, but stage one of his little plot was complete. The feeling of having to shrink down ever further, for a better disguise and the pain of his second magic induced transformation still hurt.

But even though he got a few things wrong, like the tattoos, hairstyle and his clothes, along with a magically it made for a good disguise over his real human one, but from a distance he would certainly look like Maui. "Now time for stage two, there has to be some gold that the lesser monsters hid somewhere around here." He muttered with a slightly warmer tone than before almost like the real Maui himself, as he searched through the waterfall, forest and the beach, by himself and digging holes almost all over the island until the sun came up and he fell asleep due to exhaustion, in an abandoned cave. 

Elsewhere, Te Fiti sighed as she freed Maui, when suddenly a dark black octopus slithered onto the islet and turned into a human with sea blue eyes and wearing a blue and white skirt. He did not look impressed with glowing blue tattoos in the night sky. "Te Fiti, why did you save that thief? He is partially responsible for this mess." At the stranger's accusation, Maui stuttered from the cold as he warmed up. "Y-yes, that's true. But I didn't know what would happen next at the time, great Tangaroa. Plus I didn't expect to be frozen by a giant crab I fought before." Te Fiti interjected to Tangaroa, after Maui had finished. "He was already punished for my heart's theft 1000 years ago, along with aiding Moana. Why are you so far from the Hook island Tangaroa?" 

Tangaroa reluctantly explained to the two of them, as he created a series of pictures with the water waves showing the other gods all arguing and blaming him for the dark magic mixup, apart from Kanaloa, as ten crystals drifted down to Lalotai in the quickly fading away second image. "The other gods are blaming me for the sea turning purple, apart from the Five island's God of the Underworld Kanaloa. Also the gods of magic aren't sure who left those crystals in Lalotai, but you'd better find whoever's responsible for this. Before the world winds up out of balance, again!" 

Maui declared while trying to keep warm after the god of the ocean had finished. "Well okay then Tangaroa. I'll help you out, since you asked. How hard could finding the culprit behind this be, well besides the little thing of him being a giant man wearing blue?" Then he flew away , while making care not to get blinded by the sun. But Maui would eat his words later on, after find out who actually had them... 

Then everyone found a big mess of mud and several dug holes outside the village the following morning, which didn't make things better, Toatogha seemed to have already left and Tui was furious when he found a strange fish hook that looked like Maui's. "What is wrong with the land this month! I hope that demi-god Maui was to blame for all these holes in the ground, especially since he was responsible for all of that Te Ka mess that lasted a thousand years. Why's he left his fishhook , doesn't he normally carry it with him at all times?"

Chief Tui yelled angrily as Wiwo added quickly. "Hey Chief Tui, does Maui's fish hook look like coral? Because it looks like someone is trying to trick us with a fake." Wiwo pointed at the odd white coloured fishhook and upon realising it was not the real fishhook of Maui and just a copy made of coral, Chief Tui sighed in relief. "Oh, I'm surprised I didn't notice that Wiwo. Well that is a little better than if it was actually Maui doing this. But we must keep on looking for whoever dug all of these holes." 

As the search party looked all over their home island of Motunui, Matai Vasa the man who had led Moana's ancestors to Motunui island sighed at the Chief's mother and Moana's grandmother Tala in the spirit world.. "This is not exactly ideal. Now that the insecure one is on our descendant's island , there's no telling what he could do besides digging all over the island." " Matai Vasa, you helped found our home. I thought you were braver than this!" She groaned as he replied back while pacing around. "Well, it's hard to be brave if someone knows dark magic. He also seems to have found a way to alter the seas and change shape." "Well, I will warn my son and his wife. It's the least we can do." 

When the search party arrived near the mountain, Maui was standing near a small pile of treasure and snoozing while standing up. Maui looked up from his treasure and yawned out of boredom. "Oh. What took you so long. All of you mortals must have slept like logs, because I've nearly dug up everywhere here. You can have a look if you want, but don't touch it." He blinked, but oddly instead of dark brown, his eyes were blue , though what was truly odd was his almost possessive nature about the odd rocks, letting not many people touch the treasure. Which made some people grumble angrily, but no-one wanted to mess with a famous demigod. 

Now Chief Tui was starting to grow suspicious of this Maui, because he knew Maui did not normally have sea blue eyes or was this greedy, but nervously said to the demigod. "We would like to know why you have been digging all over the island Maui. Why are you doing this?" "Erm, because a monster eel got summoned from coconuts, stole treasure from the sea and might eat you. So I dug holes all over the island to distract it." Everyone else nearly panicked at the thought of the monster eels and got away from the coconuts , but upon realising there weren't any in the trees, all of the villagers were angry that Maui had lied about monster eels and was trying to hide his laughter at their reactions. 

"Oh the look on your faces! That's utterly hilarious!" "This is not funny Maui!" "Oh, news for you. Chopping off a certain someone leg's not funny. Anyway I'm off for more adventures." Maui chortled as he hurried off with the treasure, but Tui sighed at his warriors. "Does anybody notice anything odd about Maui today? Apart from his eyes?" Kehela , the village lookout stated to the chief. "Well apart from him missing the Tamatoa tattoo, being really greedy and his sense of humour seems to have gotten worse, he seems to look the same Chief Tui. We can't just jump to conclusions, even though he doesn't seem to have his fishhook with him for some reason." 

As the search party returned back to the village, a figure whose clothes shone in the dark chuckled at the hoard, before releasing a cloud of golden toxins over a pool of water. "Let's see the humans deal with this. Actually this is probably a bad idea, but it's still one of mine anyway. The best thing is now the villagers think Maui's to blame for all of this. You all look shiny!" He sneered at his ill gotten gains, plucked unknowingly from Motunui's sands. 

The following morning after everyone returned to the village, an emergency meeting was being held, as now for some odd reason a golden hued poison was coating the coconuts for some odd reason and Chief Tui really hoped Maui wasn't responsible for this, for he was starting to be at his wit's end. "Does anyone have a good idea for what to do with the culprit of this? Because yesterday with the digging was bad enough, along with the purple sea the day before. But now people are being poisoned with stomachaches after eating coconuts! We need to find whoever it is, since it's obviously not Maui and make an example of them! Also, has anyone seen Toatogha lately?" 

Another stranger who looked similar to both Maui and the giant was whistling and carrying some oddly coloured rocks, he looked at Moana before saying. "Nothing to see here mon princesse. Move along." "Hey, wait a minute, who are you and why are you here on Motunui? You sound familiar."

"Well, I'm probably a relative of someone." 

"Nah. They definitely deserve it for asking questions about me and nearly ruining my revenge scheme." He shrugged as he added in his real human form, complete with shiny clothes and sideburns and resting his shell prosthetic leg. "For Tamatoa never stops until he gets something shiny. Even though Maui's probably after me right now. Hehehe, I will be back to my old self anytime in the next summer, then the humans will fear me!" Tamatoa chuckled as he grabbed some treasure and teleported it back to Lalotai with the orange crystal, before turning back into his Maui disguise. Then he suddenly saw the brown hawk form of Maui and giggled. "This will be fun. Wait until he gets a load of this disguise. " 

Maui nearly stopped in mid-flight, upon seeing another version of him, carrying ten crystal rings. "Wait, what? Another version of me?! Something's not right here. I mean really there's only one Maui, Hero of Men in the world!" The demigod upon realising there was someone running around looking like him nearly dropped like a stone into the sea, at the thought, but quickly looped around and was going to land onto the tree and figure the imposter out. 

Suddenly as Maui was about to head onto the island and the coconut tree, a pink blast of magic turned him into a small green and brown coconut crab as Maui yelled while he fell onto the forest ground. "Oh come on!". His imposter started laughing at him and his plight, but then someone else yelled something about a pig and the imposter fled. "Well, I guess I should just change back." Maui groused, as he changed back, only to hear a frantic cry from his fake as a monster pig suddenly showed up in the nearby cave near the cliff-side. Also the cave was seemed full of odd yellow rocks and the fake Maui was trying to keep it away from the cave and the villagers. 

So Maui quickly dived into the panic as well. The pig seemed vaguely familiar, but Maui ignored it, for now. Then a puff of red smoke appeared and the demon pig was gone, although the feeling of strange mana was still around as a slightly shaken Pua shuffled away. "Okay other me, how'd something like that demon pig get on the island?" His imposter spluttered. "Well I don't know. Maybe it got summoned by you?!" "Why would I summon a monster?" "We both want fame right?"

The two Mauis both glared at each other upon realising neither was giving way, as Sala stated. "Can the two of you reveal your fishhooks please. Both of you have mentioned your great deeds, so this will decide it. The imposter must leave the island as a punishment." Both of them winced, although the left one seemed more worried about everyone. "Okay." "Fine , the fake can go first." The right one stated in a bitter snap, as the Maui on the left hurried up. 

"I'm not that handsome crab, he is!" The impostor stated in a smug tone,as he was about to kick the real Maui off the island, before suddenly a ray splashed the imposter in the face! 

The sound of something shimmering like water revealed in front of everyone the fake Maui was actually a strange man with long hair, a tattoo showing a crab covered in treasure on his upper chest and wearing ratty blue and purple clothes, along with an odd prosthetic leg .

Though to the imposter's credit, he still stood tall as Tula's spirit quickly left, upon realising what Tamatoa was going to do next,since now everyone else was staring. "Oh, you all want to face the real me? Fine than babe, let's sway!" The imposter stated as his eyes turned pink, in a vaguely familiar voice, that didn't sound like the real Maui at all, when suddenly the disorientating feeling of mana flooded out all at once, creating a massive storm across the entire island knocking everyone backwards!

Maui was knocked back by the sudden storm of pent up mana, while rain splattered onto the ground and strong winds.

"Oh no. Not you again. Why were you of all people trying to impersonate Maui?" Moana shuddered as she remembered nearly being eaten by the infamous King of Lalotai himself, while he just sneered at her and he lowered his voice threateningly. "Oh you thought you were so clever Moana, tricking me with a barnacle covered in algae, which I mistook for the Heart of Te Feti and getting my enemy's hook back, along with getting me flipped over by a geyser! That was humiliating and unforgivable for ruining my shiny shell! Well this time , I will not let myself be tricked twice! So swears Tamatoa, the King of Lalotai!" Upon noticing the sickly purple glow, most of the villagers, including the children fled in fear apart from a few warriors and Chief Tui stood his ground at the intruder.

Maui hurried back to the clearing, only to see Moana being flung backwards by a yellow bolt from Tamatoa's right ring as Tamatoa radiated an aura of dark magic, which admittedly was odd as rings hadn't been invented yet. Also the feeling of wrongness was intensifying, as if the crab responsible knew he'd come. "Whoa! Moana, are you alright?" "I'm fine Maui." Moana replied back curtly as she tried to stand up and fetch her spear at the same time. But Maui was suddenly hit by a rock, as the clicking sound of Tamatoa's human form prosthetic 

Tamatoa quickly pulled Moana into his grasp,before saying in a tone that was meant to be sultry, but just made Moana want to be sick. "So what's it to be mon princesse? Who'd you choose among the two of us? A handsome, good looking man like me, or an out of shape relic like Maui?"

"You're turning a fight into a popularity contest?!" Moana gasped as she tried to reach for her spear, but the bored crab stated as he put his other hand "Well babe, that and a personality question. Not an annoying one like a favourite colour one. Oh, mine's jewel tones. Just wanted to know why you teamed up with the man who chopped off my leg in the first place?!" 

The menace had returned in Tamatoa's voice, as Moana suddenly realised that Tamatoa hadn't really cared about much, other than the Heart of Te Fiti, his feud with Maui and his own wants or needs, before replying. 

"I wouldn't choose you. But I'd prefer to make my own decisions."


End file.
